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in military and naval operations, a usually stationary explosive device that is designed to destroy personnel, ships, or vehicles when the latter come in contact with it. Submarine mines have been in use since the mid-19th century; land mines did not become a significant factor in warfare until a...

The security environment in the post-Taliban period has been threatened by many factors. Thousands of land mines and large quantities of unexploded ordnance continue to litter the countryside. The return of many warlords expelled by the Taliban and the emergence of new power brokers spawned by the civil war has fragmented authority across the country. Regional commanders have sizable militias...

in Cambodia

...poor sanitation, and a shortage of medicine contributed to high incidences of diseases such as tuberculosis, malaria, and pneumonia. Adding to that, tens of thousands of Cambodians were maimed by land mines, but only a fraction of them received proper medical attention. However, that issue received widespread worldwide attention, and considerable international effort was made to clear land...

...cases the irrigation works were poorly conceived and hastily built, and they soon collapsed. Most of those that survived were abandoned after 1979. Another significant problem is that millions of land mines remain in Cambodian fields from the years of warfare; this has severely restricted the amount of land available for cultivation.

...palm oil and tobacco increased in the 1990s; and even cotton production has increased slightly. The greatest impediment to agriculture, whether subsistence or commercial, however, is the number of land mines that were buried throughout the countryside during years of conflict.

...of thousands died of starvation or of a variety of diseases, many of which in less-troubled times could have been easily treated, and hundreds of thousands were killed or injured by the numerous land mines in the country. (Afghanistan was, by the end of the 20th century, one of the most heavily mined countries in the world, and vast quantities of unexploded ordnance littered the...

A land mine is an encased explosive charge buried just below the surface of the ground. It may be fired by the weight of vehicles or troops on it or by the passage of time or by remote control. Though improvised land mines in the form of buried artillery shells were used in World War I, particularly by the Germans against French and British tanks, the land mine became important only in World...

...Medico International, Mines Advisory Group, and Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation. The coalition addressed the failures of the 1980 Convention on Inhumane Weapons by seeking a total ban of land mines and increased funding for mine clearance and victim assistance. Their efforts led to the negotiation of the Mine Ban Treaty (the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling,...

First and foremost, we should fight for the universalization of the Ottawa land mine ban treaty. The Ottawa Convention, which became international law in March 1999, prohibits the development, production, stockpiling, and transfer of antipersonnel mines. Member states must also destroy existing mines within 10 years of the state’s entry into the convention.

...of the King Ḥussein Foundation, the purpose of which is also to promote humanitarian interests. In the late 1990s, she became involved in the international movement to ban antipersonnel land mines, particularly with two organizations, the Landmine Survivors Network and the International Campaign to Ban Landmines. (See also Sidebar: The Hidden Dangers of Land...

...El Salvador (1986–92). In October 1992, with the cooperation of six international organizations, she coordinated the launch of the ICBL with the mission of abolishing the use of antipersonnel land mines. Her efforts bore fruit in December 1997, when the Mine Ban Treaty was signed by more than 100 countries in Ottawa. During the following decade, about 130 countries ratified the...